KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Thousands of Kansas City Royals fans will no longer be able to watch the boys in blue on cable.
Comcast notified customers Wednesday morning that it could not reach an agreement with Diamond Sports Group, and Xfinity’s deal to broadcast Royals games on Bally Sports expired.
A purple screen telling viewers that Bally Sports is no longer available on Xfinity aired instead of the Royals game Monday afternoon.
Diamond Sports Group owns 18 regional Bally Sports channels, including the one that carries the Royals games in the Kansas City metro. Bally Sports was also dropped in MLB cities like Detroit and Minneapolis.
We know that unexpected changes to your channel lineup can be frustrating. We’ve been flexible with Diamond Sports Group, who is in bankruptcy proceedings, but have been unable to reach an agreement that’s fair for our customers.
Diamond Sports released a statement following the failed negotiations.
“It’s disappointing that Comcast rejected a proposed extension that would have kept our channels on the air and that Comcast indicated that it intends to pull the signals, preventing fans from watching their favorite local teams. Comcast has refused to engage in substantive discussions despite Diamond offering terms similar to those reached with much larger distributors of ours. We are a fans-first company and will continue to seek an agreement with Comcast to restore broadcasts, and at this critical juncture for Diamond, we hope that Comcast will recognize the important and mutually beneficial role Diamond and RSNs play in the media ecosystem,” Diamond Sports said.
The company said that impacted fans can access games through subscriptions to Fubo, DirecTV, DirecTV STREAM or Bally Sports+.
Comcast said customers who had Bally Sports as part of their cable package will see a monthly credit automatically applied to their bills to compensate for the lost channel.
The Royals declined to comment because the organization doesn’t have anything to do with negotiations between Comcast and Diamond Sports.
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